


Interstellar Medium

by clearlykero



Category: Among Us (Video Game), 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong
Genre: Alien Biology, Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Alternate Universe - No Scenarios, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Murder Mystery, POV Multiple, Pre-Slash, The Skeld (Among Us), Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27031051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearlykero/pseuds/clearlykero
Summary: He's a little jumpy, but that's probably the whole situation getting to him. Being out here in the darkness of space, with just a skeleton crew and a malfunctioning ship. It's probably nothing."That's what all the horror novel protagonists say," Dokja mutters to himself, just as a high-pitched screeching echoes down the hallway and the red lights of the alarm begin to flare.In which Kim Dokja's Company are crewmembers on the Skeld. There are impostors among them, and cracks in their precarious balance. And, well, maybe there's a love story trying to happen. Maybe it's doomed from the start.
Relationships: Kim Dokja & Lee Gilyoung, Kim Dokja/Yoo Jonghyuk
Comments: 34
Kudos: 245





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> thank you ji and coco for reading my early drafts. coco especially for helping me with this title ♡
> 
> hello! if you've come from my [interactive twitter thread](https://twitter.com/ksalientian/status/1312598944401117184), you can find the complete finale and epilogue here (ctrl+F Hangang if u wanna skip straight there), along with backstory extras to be posted soon. thank you for playing along, i hope it's been as fun for you as it's been for me.
> 
> if you're new, welcome! this was originally an interactive fic on twitter where i asked people to vote on who would get ejected (or skip) each round. the text has gone through some edits and this ao3 version is the final one, but if you're curious about the way the votes went take a look over there o/
> 
> please give me a little bit of leeway regarding the game mechanics, if it didn't work for me i just... waved my hand and ignored it LOL. i did try my best to stick with most of them though!
> 
> more content warnings:  
> violence is not super graphic, but there are wounds/injuries described in detail.  
> there is one death by suicide that is not explicitly described, but it does happen onscreen.  
> if you would like to be spoiled for who dies (whether ejected or otherwise), please see the notes at the end. thanks!

The wires are more tangled than Dokja expects, when he finally opens up the panel; some of them are even completely fried. He sighs. This is going to take a while.

As he sorts out his tools, something rattles behind him, but when he turns there's nothing there. Both the corridor to his left and the walkway to the navigation bridge proper are brightly lit, and it doesn't seem likely that anyone could sneak up on him, so Dokja returns to his wiring. He's a little jumpy, but that's probably the whole situation getting to him. Being out here in the darkness of space, with just a skeleton crew and a malfunctioning ship. It's probably nothing.

"That's what all the horror novel protagonists say," Dokja mutters to himself, just as a high-pitched screeching echoes down the hallway and the red lights of the alarm begin to flare.

The thing is, they have emergency levers every few metres down every wall of the ship. There's the big emergency button in the cafeteria, too, but that one's there to seal the doors of the cafeteria for a Code A, which obviously isn't what's happening. The levers are for really dire circumstances, like the missions gone wrong you hear being gossiped about at every port— the Impostor missions. And that's what this alarm is, the shrill whine of it piercing through his suit into his ears like all that padding doesn't exist. Dokja had never thought anyone would actually pull the levers on one of _his_ missions.

He leaves his tools where they are, clambering to his feet and jogging out into the main hallway, where he runs into Sangah— or Pink, he supposes. He's trying to remember to think in their colours like HQ kept telling them before they lost contact, but it's a tough job when he knows who she is under the suit to begin with.

"Do you know what this is about?" Dokja asks, as they both head up the hall through weapons to the cafeteria. Pink shakes her head.

"I was finishing up rerouting power to Shields when the alarm went off. I don't know why she wanted the shields up—" Pink stops talking when they enter the cafeteria to see Purple and Cyan there. Purple is tapping her foot impatiently. Dokja gathers it must have been Purple who told Pink to get the shields. Cyan only ever chimes in when it's a medical issue. Black is also there already, leaning against the wall and radiating irritation.

"Did either of you pull a lever?" Cyan asks. They shake their heads. Purple drops into a chair and folds her arms. "Whoever it is better have a damn good excuse," she grumbles.

Brown, Orange, and Blue come in together, Brown already apologising in a fluster: "Sorry, sorry, Ora— ow, I mean Blue!" He rubs his arm sheepishly where Orange has smacked him. "Blue found something she liked in Storage, so we got held up. What's going on?"

Red and Yellow come in, too, looking a little shifty, and now they're only missing Green and Lime. None of them in the cafeteria, it seems, have pulled the lever.

"I'm gonna smack that kid if he pulled it by accident, I was in the middle of a data download," Purple says. Dokja is not going to let her smack Green, but it's unfortunate that she's right about him having to be scolded if it wasn't an actual emergency. If it was even Green at all— Dokja's got his money on it being Lime instead. Before they can decide if they should go looking, Green finally appears from the bottom corridor, and his appearance sends a freezing silence across the room.

His gloves are soaked in red, as are the legs of his suit from the knee down. He tracks more of it over the floor as he stumbles to the emergency button and tries to press it. Crimson liquid smears on its glass covering.

"What happened, Green?" Black's voice is sharp enough to jar everyone out of their shock, and Green flinches.

"Jihye-noona…" he whispers. "In— in Admin— I was— she taught me how to work the data transfer panel, so I t-tried to upload something, and I didn't pay attention, and then I asked something and she didn't _answer._ " Green wipes his hands on his thighs. They leave bloody handprints behind. Dokja is already there, resting a protective hand on Green's head and staring at Black challengingly. Black takes a step back.

"And then what?" This time it's Red, in a significantly aggressive tone. Red has always been interested in Lime, Dokja remembers. Lime, or Lee Jihye— there's no point in keeping the secrets of a dead person. Red shakes off Yellow's restraining hand and stalks closer to Green.

Dokja angles his body so he's between the two of them, and makes an attempt at defusing the situation. "You don't have to," Dokja begins to reassure Green, but Green turns around and looks at Red.

"And then I saw her dead body on the floor and I pulled the lever," Green says, his voice still cracking, but he manages to say it all. And Dokja had known from the moment Green came in covered with blood— he'd known something serious was happening, but he hadn't wanted to connect the dots. Hadn't wanted to acknowledge that they had someone— _something_ else, on board. But unless one of their crew has gone insane, there's only one possibility now.

In the pin-drop silence that falls over them again, Green finally gets the glass off and punches the emergency button, and the metal shutters on the entrances of the cafeteria slam shut with a crash.

**「 Code A detected. Commencing airlock unsealing procedure. Time remaining: 60 seconds.」**

The rumours from those missions gone wrong and the vague instructions from HQ hold that the only sure way to kill an Impostor is in the vacuum of space— but the emergency airlock will only let one of them be ejected each time the button is pressed, in case of sabotage. And it won't let anyone back in.

They don't even know how many Impostors there are among them. They need to get it right— or it's entirely likely that more people are going to die.

* * *

"We don't have to eject anyone now," Cyan says calmly, before Dokja can say so himself. He keeps his hand on Green and makes a sound of agreement. "We can't leave to check on anything while the shutters are down, and right now there's no proof."

Red snarls. "No _proof?_ That fucker was in there with Jihye. Yellow and I were in Security, we would have seen on the cameras if anyone went in!" He pulls out a thermal knife from his tool belt, to the crew's collective inhale of breath. Green is being brave, but Dokja can feel the boy lean into him a bit. _Why,_ Dokja thinks in frustration, _did Impostors have to infiltrate_ this _mission?_ There are children on the ship, and damn HQ for it. Lime, too, is— had been— too young. Even Red.

"Red, come on, we weren't really looking at the cameras, we can't know for sure," Yellow says, but Red only grips his knife harder.

"Settle down, Red," Orange warns him. She has a hand on her hip where her beam sword sits in its holster. Dokja wishes he'd received more combat training; unfortunately Navigators tend to focus on ship systems and starmaps to the exclusion of everything else. "He's just a kid, you're scaring him."

Red is locked in a staredown with Orange for a strained moment, until Blue darts over to where Dokja and Green are standing. "It's okay, Green," she tells him, surprising Dokja. He hadn't thought they got along. "I found a frog toy in Storage and was going to give it to Orange-unni since she liked it, but you can have it if you want. Unni won't mind." So that's what Brown was going to say earlier, before Orange interrupted him. Orange clucks her tongue, embarrassed.

Green's hands clench into fists, then unclench slowly. "Thanks, Blue," he says. His tone is hesitant, but also a little steadier.

The timer on the airlock runs out and it unseals, opening a hole in the wall of the cafeteria. They all look at it tensely, but no one makes a move. After about twenty seconds, it quietly seals itself up again. Green lets out a breath.

Red turns and throws his knife at the entranceway shutter. It sinks in about two inches. Dokja stifles a sigh. Red, along with Black, is their best weapons pilot, but Dokja isn't entirely comfortable with how much of a loose cannon he is. Even Yellow, despite her support, isn't standing quite as close to him as earlier.

"Well, Cyan has a point," says Purple, getting to her feet. "We can't just eject any random person. If they're innocent we'd just be shooting ourselves in the foot right now." She seems too calm, but then Purple has always been that way.

Pink raises her hand shakily. "If we're going to leave it like this, we shouldn't separate. I mean— we should move around in groups. Right? We have to find out who killed Lime, but we also have to fix the ship. We can't afford to just drift while we look for the culprit."

"Pink is right," says Brown, nodding. Brown is also taking this fairly well, as expected of former military. The only ones Dokja can tell are really shaken are Blue and Green, who are both still children, Pink and Yellow, who are civilians, and Red. As for the others, Cyan and Purple have cool personalities to begin with, Cyan being a doctor and Purple coming from command track. Orange is an enforcement agent. And Black is just… Black. Dokja is sure Black is channeling any distress he has into anger, his favourite emotion.

But at least one of them, Dokja thinks, his hand tightening on Green's shoulder, is an Impostor. They've been assimilated and impersonated by an alien race. The Impostors take everything, becoming a double so perfect no scans can catch them unless they reveal themselves. Dokja can't trust anyone right now. He looks down. Not even Green.

"Yellow, we're going back to Security. I'm going to find the fucker who did this and _gut_ them." Red grabs Yellow's arm and drags her out of the cafeteria. Dokja and Pink exchange a look, and Pink quickly follows them. _Good,_ Dokja thinks. _Sangah-ssi will keep an eye on them._

Cyan, of course, heads to Admin to check on Lee Jihye's body. Orange follows, her enforcer training probably going to be of some forensic use. Purple stays in the cafeteria to complete her data transfer, and Blue volunteers to stay in the cafeteria too, followed by Brown.

"White," says Black, motioning to the right corridor with his head.

"Okay, I do need to finish the wiring at Navigation," Dokja replies, "but let's just— Green needs to clean up a little." Black is silent for a moment, then nods once.

There is a decontamination chamber in O2, and they wait outside for Green to be done. Dokja can hear sniffling from inside, and he sighs. He looks at Black, who is checking the repair log on his mobile terminal.

"Where were you, earlier?"

"Weapons," says Black. He powers off his terminal and turns to Dokja. "There's something off about the ship."

"Yes, we have an _Impostor_ on the ship, Black."

"Not that, you fool. The AI didn't just malfunction. Someone's sabotaging us."

They stare at each other. Dokja wishes he could see Black's face through the helmet. They've been working together for years, Dokja running navigation and he on weapons. In all that time, though Dokja has bared his own face before, Black has never done it. His helmet is always tinted pitch-dark, and he doesn't wear accessories like anyone else does (even Dokja sometimes attaches devil horns to his helmet, just for fun. There's not a lot of entertainment to be had in the void of space once he finishes his books). Though they know each other's names, and Black even uses Dokja's name sometimes, he'd never let Dokja use his own.

Before, Dokja had found this trait of Black's to be funny and endearing. Now, he can't help but wonder.

"The Impostor, obviously. They killed Lime, sabotaging our systems wouldn't be a stretch." Dokja pushes off the wall. "Look, decontamination is going to take a while, could you—"

Black grabs the back of his suit. "Navigators know the systems the best," Black says, low. Dokja stills.

"What are you trying to say?"

On one hand, being alone with Black is not great; Black's combat aptitude is far higher than his, especially because all of Dokja's own tools are for survival and tend to be lethal. He can't just try and kill Black when he doesn't know if Black is an Impostor or not, so he's probably going to end up losing any fight they have. On the other hand, it's good that Green isn't here to possibly get hurt himself.

"Take off your helmet."

"You take it off."

Black grips his suit so hard Dokja can feel the pressure of his fingers. "You want me to take off _my_ helmet?"

"Trust goes both ways," Dokja says, reaching behind him to push Black's hand away. Black lets go. Green, the smart kid, picks this moment to ask Dokja to come in and keep him company. Dokja sticks his tongue out at Black, even though he can't see it, and leaves him standing outside. Black is good enough that anyone who attacks him won't be able to make a quick kill, and from what Dokja has heard, after that first burst of power the Impostors can't really do much until they recover. Black should be fine. And if he _is_ the Impostor, nothing Dokja can do is going to save them.

Happily, no one gets murdered there, and Green comes out of the decontamination chamber squeaky clean to follow them to Navigation. He's a little fidgety, though, and keeps jumping when Dokja touches him. It's understandable. Lime was basically killed right in front of him.

"Black, what's your next task?" Dokja asks, peeling off his glove so he can reach further into the electrical panel. Black glances at his terminal.

"Busywork. Cleaning the chutes. It doesn't matter, I should be back on weapons. We're drifting too close to the asteroid belt." Black closes his terminal and continues staring at Green, who is crouched next to Dokja as if Dokja can hide him. Dokja sighs inwardly. Right.

When Dokja is finally done with the wiring and they are grouped around the control seat at Weapons watching Black destroy asteroids like he's playing a game, the abrupt wailing of the emergency alarm shatters their calm yet again.

This time, its screeching sounds so much worse. This time, Dokja knows exactly what it means.

* * *

In the cafeteria, they are all grouped up, each eyeing the other suspiciously. No one goes for the emergency button yet, but everyone is keenly aware of the absence of Cyan. Orange had come in, a single smear of blood across her visor, and they had known.

"Right," says Purple, full of bravado and still not quite able to hide the tremor in her voice. "Cyan was with Orange. And— Orange, you pulled the emergency lever?"

Orange doesn't answer until Blue tugs at her suit, and then she jumps. "What? I— yeah. Yes. I was with Cyan, we were," she swallows audibly, "we took Lime from Admin to the Medbay, and I waited outside for Cyan to run the scans—"

"Lady, we were supposed to stick together," Red cuts in, bristling. He's retrieved his knife and is flipping it in his hand again, clearly ready to start something.

"I know that," Orange snaps, "I was wrong, alright? I thought— there's no other way into the bay, and I didn't— I didn't want to look at her body. She was just a child. And now Cyan is— I'm sorry." Orange's voice breaks on the last sentence. She turns away, arms clutched around her waist as though she's trying to hold herself together.

"Great, the enforcer's a pussy," Red mutters, but he's a little subdued now and winces when Yellow elbows him.

"What about the cameras?" Dokja asks. He's trying not to think about having to eject someone. It's becoming increasingly clear that if they don't actively try to fight back, they'll just be picked off until none of them are left. They can't possibly stay on watch forever; if they don't continue fixing the ship _all_ of them will die.

"We checked the previous logs. No one went into Admin after Green and Lime, and I don't think anyone went into Medbay after Orange and Cyan either." Pink glances at Red and Yellow, who both obviously avoid her gaze. "We were a little occupied for a minute, so we might have missed something."

"Occupied, unni?" Blue asks, tentatively, but Purple waves her hand, dismissing it. Dokja blinks. Purple would be all over a detail like that ordinarily, unless— he frowns, frustrated. He can't be sure what exactly Purple is trying to do.

"There's only a couple of options here," she continues. "Green is a prime suspect from earlier, obviously, as is Orange—"

"Orange? Can't you see she's distraught?" Brown steps in front of Orange, folding his arms. "She made a mistake, but it doesn't make her guilty."

"Either Orange is lying, or three people watching the cameras somehow missed something on the screens," Purple shrugs. "And I was in the cafeteria with Blue and Brown, so we obviously couldn't have missed someone coming through on this side." She saunters over to the emergency button and leans on the table pointedly. "Four very suspicious people; five if you include Green."

"Or the Impostors don't need to move through the corridors," Green points out, softly, and as one almost all their heads all turn to the vent in the cafeteria. Black, however, continues to watch Green. "I kept noticing them when I was with hyung at Navigation earlier. They're everywhere."

Dokja squeezes his shoulder supportively, thinking of the rattle he heard before. "I might have heard someone using a vent, before the first emergency," he offers. "But I can't be sure."

"Lime's death aside," says Black, though he sounds like it pains him to say, "there are four obvious suspects for Seolhwa's murder. Purple isn't wrong." No one calls him out on his slip-up with Cyan's name. Dokja wonders if they were close.

Brown makes a confused noise, so Dokja elaborates: "The vent channel in the Medbay only connects to Electrical and Security. If Orange isn't the Impostor, the remaining suspects are whoever was in those areas. You guys were together in the cafeteria, and I was with Green and Black at Weapons. So besides Orange, there's Red, Yellow, and Pink." Dokja doesn't think it's Pink. But, he reminds himself, annoyed, he shouldn't be trusting anyone at all.

"You're crazy if you think I killed Jihye," says Red. He slaps the button on his suit to retract the visor of his helmet, so they can all better see how he's glaring daggers at them. Dokja chews on his lip— does the reveal of his face mean Red isn't an Impostor, or does it mean that he and Black were mistaken? "Crazier still if you suspect I'm on the same side as something that did."

Yellow looks at Dokja, then at Black, but she doesn't say anything about them when she speaks. "I don't know who it could be, but it wasn't— us. I can't say for sure if anyone else went to the Medbay, or if Orange did something, we were— well, Red was _upset,_ and then after that we were checking the logs instead of watching real-time. I'm sorry for making you get caught up with me and Red," Yellow adds, to Pink.

"It's fine, I got a good rest afterwards." Pink nudges her shoulder, and Yellow nods. Black turns his head sharply at that last sentence.

Dokja knows what caught Black's attention. Even if he thinks it's not Pink, he too is starting to find this all too convenient. He keeps his silence for the moment, deciding to let Black bring it up. Green mumbles something impolite about Red, thankfully too quietly for Red himself to overhear.

"Well," says Purple, "before anyone can make their escape—" She flips open the cover and presses the emergency button. "Let's take a vote."

**「 Code A detected. Commencing airlock unsealing procedure. Time remaining: 60 seconds.」**

* * *

Sangah has been Sangah for as long as she can remember.

That's normal, of course. All of her brothers and sisters are like her. They are only mindless worms, before taking a host. The humans call their race Impostors, but Sangah thinks it's more accurate to call them Assimilators. She _is_ Yoo Sangah, after all. Just Yoo Sangah with an extra set of memories. Yoo Sangah with an innate desperation for the survival of her species, Yoo Sangah who no longer feels a kinship with humans. Perhaps that is enough to make her not Yoo Sangah at all.

She knows, before Han Sooyoung even looks up from the emergency button to meet her eyes through the helmet, that she's been too rash, too careless. The crew is suspicious of her. Even her broodmates could turn on her, if they see that there's no hope. As they should, she thinks. If it makes the others less suspicious of them, they should throw her whole-heartedly under the proverbial bus. But Sangah can feel their bond, strong and hot as ever, pulling tight between them. Even if they might not speak for her, it'll be hard for them to completely betray her.

It's a shame. Sangah had quite liked her life. She would have liked to learn more about their world, and the myriad languages that humans still stubbornly speak. The human Yoo Sangah had been interested too, but now that she's assimilated, her curiosity has only grown more ravenous with each passing day.

She listens with half an ear as the others grow increasingly more aggressive in their questioning after Yoo Joonghyuk had thrown out his suspicion of her, and doesn't even flinch when Kim Namwoon grabs her by the arm.

"Why aren't you defending yourself?" he demands, a tiny edge of hysteria in his voice. She smiles at him, a little sadly.

"I'm sorry," she says. She looks at Kim Dokja. He hasn't retracted his visor, so she can't see his face, but she has Yoo Sangah's memories of what it looks like. _He trusted me,_ she thinks, and imagines what his expression might look like now. She finds that she's sorry to be the cause of it. "I won't fight." She can't, anyway. Killing Lee Seolhwa had taken a lot out of her, and she's nowhere near recovered. She's not really a fighter.

"Why?" Jang Hayoung is trembling. Her hurt voice makes the bright, sunny yellow of her suit seem somehow duller. Sangah is sorry about that, too. She is sorry about many things, suddenly, in these precious seconds before her death.

If she had said more, maybe she would be safe now, while Jung Heewon was ejected in her place. Maybe Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn't be holding his phaser to her stomach and backing her up to the wall.

But Sangah didn't really like killing, to begin with. If they didn't need the humans to spawn more of their brood, she wouldn't have done it at all. She knows her broodmates had felt her sadness at each kill, and she hopes they'll understand.

She's a little tired.

Behind her, the sucking vacuum of space opens up.

"Sangah-ssi?" Kim Dokja says, and in the quiet she hears him just fine.

"Yes?"

"Will it—" he hesitates. He won't argue for her to live; he's far too practical for that. But he is a tender-hearted man, after all.

"It won't hurt," she says, with a smile, and without waiting for Yoo Joonghyuk to shove her, she leaps out of the airlock.

* * *

No one talks as they watch Yoo Sangah drift further into space. Dokja supposes she isn't Yoo Sangah any more. She isn't even a 'she', just an 'it'. But he can't quite reconcile the facts. Outside the ship and away from the pressurisation of its life support system, an inky black substance seeps out of the pink suit, somehow seeming even darker than the void around it. Then the wall closes up again, hiding what was once Yoo Sangah from view. Dokja swallows around the obstruction in his throat.

"So tell me, Red," says Purple, jarring him out of his melancholy, "how exactly did you miss a fucking alien sneaking out to kill someone?"

Red, whose visor is still retracted, looks clearly shaken. His face is pale, and his knife trembles a little in his hand. "I— I was so sure it was Green," he says. "I wanted to go and question him myself. Got angry with Yellow for trying to stop me." He turns away and puts his helmet visor back down. When Yellow lays a hand on his shoulder, he shrugs her off.

"Well— we got into a fight. Red wasn't dealing with Lime's death very calmly— he asked me for relationship advice, you know, before— before everything!" Yellow looks at Red as if expecting another tirade, but he doesn't respond, and she wilts a little. "And so… we fought and P-Pink came to separate us, and Red maybe hit Pink just a little and Pink went to lie down in the corner, and then we were just so focused on the camera logs…" Yellow's voice trails off.

"It's okay, Yellow-unni. I believe you." Blue's voice is stubborn. "I believe Red-oppa too."

"Blue, you can't just trust everyone like that, it's not safe," says Brown, kindly.

"But Brown-oppa trusts them too, right?"

"Er." Brown fidgets. "That's different."

Dokja turns Brown's words over in his mind. It's sobering, to know that Brown might as well have been talking to him. Of course Dokja knew that he couldn't trust anyone, but somewhere in his subconscious he'd trusted them all the same. Called himself clever for being distrustful of Black when— Green bumps against his side, and Dokja looks down at him, swallowing. When he'd been alone with Green in O2 without even a second thought.

People have died. Dokja could easily be next. He finds himself less concerned about his death than for what his death would mean to the remaining crewmates. He isn't doing much now when the ship is stalled, but when it's fixed again they'll need him to get back on track, since they've been drifting. Navigation isn't something just anyone can pick up.

And, Dokja realises, with a sinking feeling, it isn't something the Impostors will be able to pick up either. The one wayplanet within reach is a MIRA-sponsored trading station, and there's no way any Impostor would want to be caught there. They'd need to take the ship through at least one space-jump, which— is impossible, without a Navigator.

"I don't think Pink killed Lime," Black says. Dokja's eyes snap to Black and he decides to postpone the emotional crisis about his own value as a hostage. Thankfully, if Dokja is good at anything, it's repressing his feelings. "Pink seemed calm. Too calm to make a bad choice on their first kill. Lime was a good fighter, but Red and I, and Orange, are better. I would have been the most intelligent choice for the initial kill."

Black's voice is, as always, a cold, expensive-sounding baritone that thrums in Dokja's spine. And as always, Dokja spitefully hopes he's super ugly. He'd feel much better about his ill-fated attraction to the man. Then Dokja remembers that Black might be an Impostor, and the thought sours.

"So why _weren't_ you the first victim?" Purple taps her finger on the table. "You were alone in Weapons, and there's a vent there, too. It would have been easy."

"I was probably supposed to be. Pink was in the right side of the ship when Green pulled the alarm. I think Lime was an impulse kill." Black turns his head to look at Red and Yellow, and so does Dokja. "There's definitely more than one Impostor, and they're covering for each other."

Brown takes a breath as if he wants to say something, but he's astute enough to see the rising tension between Red and Black, and decides to remain where he is as a shield for Blue instead. Orange, though, has recovered her usual headstrong personality.

"Let's not accuse anyone right now. I agree that Red and Yellow have been acting suspicious," says Orange. She's standing straighter now, her hand resting on her hip where her weapon is. "But I'd rather—"

"Rather what?" Purple snaps, swinging herself off the table and stalking towards Orange. "Rather let some innocent people be killed instead of ejected? Because that's what's going to happen. We don't know anything about Impostors besides that they can't be detected by the systems and that they can't kill many people at a time. And maybe they look different under their helmets, but if the systems can't detect them, do we really know that for sure? In the months since the invasion started, that's _all_ humanity has learned about them. For all we know they can fucking turn invisible and poison us to death with nerve gas. The longer we wait the more chances they have to kill us."

She throws up her arms and spins around, stalking back to the emergency button. Orange stands, stunned. Dokja is also shocked. Purple rarely gets confrontational like this. She's usually content to give people the rope to hang themselves, instead of actively trying to hang them. There's always the possibility she has another angle, but— there is a much simpler explanation for her odd behaviour, and Dokja isn't sure he wants to gamble on just his slight inkling that there's something else going on with her.

"There are a lot of suspicious people in this room right now," Purple says. "I'd rather get rid of someone innocent than let those aliens kill them and think they run this ship." She glances at Orange. "If I'm wrong, we can get back to tasks. Wait for the next death like idiots. If I'm right, I'm right."

And without waiting for anyone's reply, she slams the button again.

**「 Code A detected. Commencing airlock unsealing procedure. Time remaining: 60 seconds.」**

* * *

_Shit,_ Sooyoung thinks, _I'm so fucking stupid._

She's overestimated how much the crew is willing to listen to her. Command track or not, she hasn't been here long enough. Black and White are the ones who have been here from the start, and now that she's shown her hand and been too hasty to get another one ejected, Black's suspicion has immediately turned to her. The rest, too, follow his lead, as they have been since the start. Orange has already drawn her weapon, a nasty-looking beam sword.

She can't help but compare how different it was with her and Pink. Even when Pink practically admitted her guilt, everyone was only reacting with hurt. They were sad. Betrayed. Now Sooyoung can feel how they look at her, and even through their helmets she knows they're thinking _of course it was her._

So she'd wanted to get this over with quickly. So what? Is it wrong? The only people who are really necessary to complete this mission are Black, White, and Green. Black for his weapons skill, White because he's a navigator, and Green because his strange DNA is the reason they're on this mission at all, and fuck MIRA for not thinking it necessary information to share with the entire crew. In the end they're all just afraid to die a meaningless death for their questionable galactic rulers. Well, she can't blame them. She's afraid, too.

"Ahh, I need a smoke," Sooyoung says, pulling her helmet off. Black goes still. It's a ready sort of stillness, like if she makes the slightest wrong move he's going to cut her down. The timer ticks away ominously.

"Purple," says White, carefully, "why did you tell Sangah-ssi to reroute power to Shields?"

"I didn't," Sooyoung says, simply.

They stare at each other for an infinitesimal moment that seems to last forever. She can't tell if he believes her, but if he does— Sooyoung thinks White might be the person on this ship who understands her the most. He probably knows why she couldn't wait to call another emergency. He knows that after Cyan's death, Sooyoung is the most likely to be killed next. It's natural. Of the people who know the most about the alien race called Impostors, command candidates are right up there along with doctors. She'd rather risk it now and die in the cradle of the stars she loves, than be dismembered and used by an alien creature. She wonders if White cares at all, or if he's just an Impostor wearing Kim Dokja's skin.

"The Impostor mimicked Pink so well you couldn't even tell anything had changed," she tells him, ignoring how Black aims his phaser again. "But they aren't human. They don't think like us. All they want is to reproduce, and get a broodbearer to our homeworld." Sooyoung looks at Blue, and then Brown, raising her eyebrow. "They don't trust like humans do."

"Are you trying to say you're innocent now?" Orange scoffs. "You were alone in the Cafeteria too. You could have easily killed Lime."

Sooyoung knows White can't save her. Even if he wasn't an Impostor and could somehow change everyone's minds, there isn't enough time to change Black's. Black thinks Red and Green are suspicious too, but right now Sooyoung is the most obvious choice, damned by her own haste and thoughtless fear. He'll get rid of her no matter what. She probably would have done the same.

"I think Pink killed Lime, but it wasn't an _impulse_ kill. Was it, Green?"

When Green flinches back, Sooyoung smiles. The crew don't want to think badly of him, because he's just a child. But she, like Black, has been wary of him since he came into the Cafeteria covered in blood. Though Red is still on her list, because his altercation with Pink was far too convenient, it's much more important for the crew not to focus on who's obvious. More important for them to be cautious of the hidden blade.

Perhaps that's just sophistry. She wouldn't be feeling the hum of the airlock unsealing behind her now, if they'd focused on the less obvious answer. Sooyoung is bitter, she admits. At least Black is too surprised by her final line to shoot her out of the airlock. That would have hurt.

She breathes out, expelling all the air in her lungs. When her body exhausts all its oxygen in fifteen seconds, she'll just lose consciousness. After that, well— it's going to be messy, but she won't be alive to see it.

 _Like falling asleep,_ she thinks, closing her eyes and pretending to be brave, stepping back into the void.

* * *

When the wall of the ship slides closed again, swallowing up the grotesque sight of Purple's— of Han Sooyoung's, he won't disrespect her death by taking her name— rapidly swelling face and bubbling skin, it isn't silent as it was before. The harsh sound of Orange's breath punctuates the unease of the room, the instability between them laid bare by what they've just done. Black replaces his phaser in his belt, then abruptly turns and punches the wall. Everyone flinches. It's uncharacteristic of Black, who usually expresses his anger on actual people, or failing that simply turns silent and leaves.

Dokja is ashamed of his relief at the fact that they didn't have to see all of Han Sooyoung's end. He hopes the ship continues to drift ever further from this spot. If he has to see her corpse and all its blood and exploded tissue the next time the airlock opens, he doesn't know if he could bear it.

At his side, Green moves a little. Dokja rests a hand on his helmet.

"Green," he says, softly, expectantly. He feels a familiar glacial detachment overtaking him.

Green looks up at Dokja; his shoulders are trembling minutely, as if asking Dokja if he could really suspect him. Before, Dokja might have been fazed. But his brain has started working properly. Fondness will lure him into mistakes, so at the moment they are cast aside in favour of rationality. He's probably going to shake himself apart when they're safe later (if ever) but right now he puts on a smile and takes off his own helmet. Han Sooyoung would be proud.

"My name is Kim Dokja," he says, keeping his eyes on Green. "At this point any of us could die. It's no time for secrets when we need some way to trust each other." He taps the top of Green's helmet. "We need to know if Impostors look different at all. Han Sooyoung didn't think so."

Red takes off his own helmet immediately. Unsurprising, since he's already revealed his face. "Kim Namwoon," he says, roughly. His white hair is flattened to his scalp, damp with sweat. Dokja wonders if it's from guilt. Yellow retracts her visor, showing a startlingly beautiful, androgynous face, and introduces herself as Jang Hayoung. Orange is Jung Heewon, Brown is Lee Hyunsung, who glance at each other then away. There's a weird awkwardness between them, but that could just be from their ambiguous maybe-friends maybe-lovers relationship. Dokja has nothing to say about that. Blue, of course, is Shin Yoosung, whom he already knows. She's been very quiet this whole time, only speaking up to say she believes in this or that person. She hasn't even been arguing with Green. Dokja calmly files that information away. Perhaps she's just scared; perhaps she isn't.

"Black," says Dokja. He knows Black's name, of course, though not his face. They've been together for so long. "I'm trusting you now, aren't I?" Though it doesn't mean as much as it did back in that corridor, when they thought an Impostor would look like what they were under the suit.

"You are," Black says. He raises his hand to touch the visor button, hesitates for a moment before finally pressing it. Dokja, of course, can't bear not to look. But then the visor retracts and he has to bite back a curse. "Yoo Joonghyuk," the man says, but Dokja almost doesn't hear him. It is incredibly unfair that he has to discover, _now,_ when a third of their crew is dead and intruders still hide among them, that Yoo Joonghyuk is the most ridiculously attractive man Dokja has ever seen. It's not that Dokja would have tried anything even if they weren't in the middle of a crisis. It's just the principle of the matter. Yoo Joonghyuk meets his gaze steadily, until Dokja wrenches back control of himself and finally looks down at Green.

"Just you left, Gilyoung," Dokja says. Lee Gilyoung jumps when Dokja says his name.

"Hyung," Lee Gilyoung says, his voice sounding scared, "it's not what you think."

He pulls his helmet off slowly, and on his smooth young face there is a dark stain like a lesion, just under his left eye. As Dokja watches, a strange black miasma reaches out from it like tentacles, feeling around on his cheek, stretching like a curious cat. Jang Hayoung inhales sharply. "Isn't that like what Pink—"

"It was on me from before," Lee Gilyoung cuts her off, but he isn't even looking at her. His wide eyes search Dokja's face for understanding.

Luckily for him, Dokja thinks he knows what this is about. "Relax, Kim Namwoon," he says, before Kim Namwoon can attack. "Haven't you wondered why we're on this mission at all? It's crazy to bring children on a jump back to the homeworld for no reason. Gilyoung is why…" Dokja carefully touches Lee Gilyoung's cheek, and the miasma sucks back into the lesion like it's frightened. "Well, I don't know what they discovered at the lab, I only know that MIRA's story is that both Yoosung and Gilyoung are genetic experiments, and Gilyoung is the really important one for some reason. Han Sooyoung wasn't sharing any more than that." Gilyoung nods, meekly, and Dokja rubs his head. "But it must be something to do with the Impostors, or she wouldn't have been so quick to point her finger at you. I don't know if you can be trusted."

"He's compromised," Kim Namwoon snaps. "Kill him and we're done."

"Kill him without enough justification and MIRA gets rid of all of us even if we reach the homeworld," Dokja says. "Yoo Joonghyuk, what do you think?"

Yoo Joonghyuk is looking at his terminal again. "Wait," he says, with no inflection. "They can't take me, and I think you know they won't kill you. It's more important for us to fix the ship first."

Dokja hums in agreement. "I know. Alright."

"You— but that's basically what Purple was saying, how can you suddenly agree with her now?" Jung Heewon sounds outraged. It's unfortunate, but Dokja has no choice but to offend her. And Lee Hyunsung too, it looks like, with how he's frowning unhappily. Shin Yoosung only looks at him, her face blank. Dokja's heart aches. "There's no one more important on this ship than the other!"

"It's not sudden. It's—" He sighs. "It's practical, even if it's dangerous. We don't have the energy or rations to support an extended stop here. And to MIRA, only Lee Gilyoung really has importance. Yoo Joonghyuk and I are here as the bare minimum necessary to fly the ship, and the rest of you were only assigned so no one got suspicious about such a small crew."

Kim Namwoon, who has been weighing his helmet in his hand, suddenly pitches it at Lee Gilyoung, so fast that Dokja can't even react. Yoo Joonghyuk reacts for him— there is a crack of collapsing air, the sizzle of melting plastic in Dokja's nose. Kim Namwoon clicks his tongue, and Yoo Joonghyuk lowers his phaser. "I'll kill anyone who sneaks up on me," Kim Namwoon says. "And I don't trust any of you."

"Namwoon—"

"Leave it, noona." He shakes his head at Jang Hayoung. He seems to have reined in his aggression, now that he knows Yoo Joonghyuk will interfere if he tries to kill Green. "I'll be in Security."

He walks out, and as if that's a signal, the rest of them look at each other and start to shuffle around too. Lee Hyunsung touches Jung Heewon's shoulder comfortingly. Shin Yoosung hesitates, then runs to Jang Hayoung and takes her hand. A sharp pain twists Dokja's heart again. It's not that he doesn't care about her, or that he somehow cares about Lee Gilyoung more, it's just— he can't be her favourite uncle right now. The only one he's sure of is himself. And Lee Gilyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk, Impostors or not, are necessary.

Yoo Joonghyuk was right, after all. Dokja is the safest person on the ship. He hates it.

Dokja hates it even more, later, when Yoo Joonghyuk walks a little bit too fast into the Upper Engine room and Dokja has to watch him get run all the way through by a void-black blade.

* * *

Yoo Joonghyuk, as it happens, is almost inhumanly skilled at fighting. Even in that split second he had before being stabbed, he'd moved enough that the strange blade hadn't gone through any of his organs. He'd be losing far more blood if it had. He's also probably the only human in MIRA's employ who has that kind of unscientific reaction time.

Right now Dokja can't spare the mental capacity to feel impressed by that feat.

"Adult," Yoo Joonghyuk had said, and seemingly passed out after triggering his suit release. Which is barely helpful. All that means is that his attacker wasn't Shin Yoosung, which still doesn't rule her out as an Impostor. But Dokja is not in the mood to think about that. Yoo Joonghyuk is losing too much blood as it is, and Dokja has no idea if he'd managed to avoid his intestines too. His mind is replaying the awful _schlick_ of the alien limb pulling out from Yoo Joonghyuk's torso, the way Yoo Joonghyuk let out a soft, high-pitched breath of pain and collapsed to the floor. Stupid bastard. _They can't take me,_ he'd said, and Dokja had went and trusted in his idiotic arrogance.

Lee Gilyoung stands at the doorway. He had been waving at the cameras to try and attract Kim Namwoon's attention, but after a minute they'd realised Kim Namwoon wasn't responding. Either something had happened to him too, or Kim Namwoon has… reasons not to want Yoo Joonghyuk to survive. Dokja doesn't know which it is.

The backlighting from the corridor shrouds Lee Gilyoung's face in shadow, but Dokja can still see the silhouetted tentacles of miasma drifting around his face. He tries not to let it affect his judgement.

"Gilyoung," Dokja says, voice strained. "Pull the lever." Lee Gilyoung does. The drone of the alarm does nothing for Dokja's nerves. He's pressing hard on the wound but blood keeps seeping inexorably through; his and Yoo Joonghyuk's inner shirts are not nearly enough padding. He presses harder still. His heart is beating so fast that the edges of his vision are swimming, but he grits his teeth and hangs on.

"H-hyung, what should I do now?" Lee Gilyoung is actually shaking hard enough it rattles his suit, but other than that he is keeping admirably calm. "Should I go to the cafeteria and get help? O-or the Medbay?"

If Lee Gilyoung leaves now— Dokja looks at Yoo Joonghyuk's still body, wishing he was at least still conscious and able to have an opinion. His mind is flicking through a hundred different scenarios, but in the end… It's too risky to move Yoo Joonghyuk unless he has help stronger than Lee Gilyoung, or if Yoo Joonghyuk is at least awake enough to help out himself. But if Lee Gilyoung goes, Dokja can't even trust that the kid isn't an Impostor and won't try something just to keep Yoo Joonghyuk from getting treatment. But what choice does he have? For all three of them to stay there and just wait? Dokja can't help Yoo Joonghyuk besides trying to keep him from bleeding out— the only person with enough knowledge of field medicine to possibly help is Lee Hyunsung, who wouldn't know to come here immediately. Then Yoo Joonghyuk really would die.

If Lee Gilyoung doesn't delay, Dokja thinks, or if he doesn't bring back an Impostor by accident or by design, it should be fine.

"Go," Dokja says, swallowing, "get anyone who's close. Preferably Hyunsung-ssi."

Lee Gilyoung nods and races off, leaving Dokja to stare at Yoo Joonghyuk's stupid handsome face. "Joonghyuk-ah, you'd better not die before I get to kiss you at least once," he mutters.

"Kim Dokja…"

Dokja freezes. Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes are, somehow, undeniably, open. What the _fuck_.

"When did you come to? Why didn't you—"

"Green is Impostor," Yoo Joonghyuk says, in between sucking breaths that sound distressingly wet. "Can't trust him. You'll die."

"Yes, but now _you're_ the one dying, you stupid bastard— even if he is the Impostor, what am I supposed to do? Leave you here and run? Lock myself in the cafeteria until it's me and the Impostors?"

"Yes." Yoo Joonghyuk says this terrible thing as though he thinks Dokja will agree immediately just to save his own skin. Dokja has to take a moment to just breathe, the smell of blood filling his nostrils and pulling bile up his throat. His eyes burn humiliatingly.

"Fuck you," he snaps, blinking hard. "Fuck you, Yoo Joonghyuk, I'm not leaving you here alone. You're about as useful as a sunfish right now. Yoosung could flick your forehead and you'd just die."

Yoo Joonghyuk closes his eyes again, like listening to Dokja is wearing him out. "Leave. Doors."

Dokja understands. He understands, but he doesn't like it. He doesn't like it so he misinterprets it instead, and when he starts fashioning a compression bandage for Yoo Joonghyuk's abdomen out of his suit, Yoo Joonghyuk doesn't bother to protest.

Yoo Joonghyuk shouldn't be hurt and on the floor and struggling to stay conscious like this. He shouldn't have to endure the indignity of vomiting in his mouth and having Dokja scoop it out so he won't choke. Dokja shouldn't be the one having to clumsily field dress Yoo Joonghyuk's gored stomach and lift him up and listen to the shallow, uneven breaths he takes trying to get through the agony. It should be Dokja who's dying. Not—

"Noisy," Yoo Joonghyuk whispers. Dokja stops thinking.

Dokja has just gotten them both out of the Upper Engine room when its solid metal doors slide closed with a bang, nearly trapping the bottom of Dokja's suit in between them. Of course, Yoo Joonghyuk was right. Dokja clenches his jaw, ignoring the conclusions that want to be drawn. It's not the time. He focuses on Yoo Joonghyuk's increasingly laboured breathing and trudges towards the Medbay.

"Son of a bitch, if you die after all this I'll just give you to the Impostors." Stress and adrenaline is making Dokja's tongue loose. But Yoo Joonghyuk doesn't reply.

Lee Gilyoung's running footsteps sound down the corridor before Dokja can actually lose it. With him is Jang Hayoung, who rushes to his side to help him stabilise Yoo Joonghyuk's body. Thankfully, she's a lot stronger than she looks.

"Help me get him on the floor inside, we can't manage the bed," Dokja says, and they both gloss over the fact that two of the beds have the cold bodies of their once-crewmates on them, covered in sheets.

After they manage to get Yoo Joonghyuk settled in the medbay, Jang Hayoung helps him make the compression tighter, while Lee Gilyoung looks for any sort of antibiotics in the lockers and drawers. Dokja glances at him. He keeps shuffling back to linger awkwardly near Dokja, shifting on his feet like he wants to come closer but doesn't dare. Dokja pretends he can't see it. He really doesn't want to be close to anyone.

"Gilyoung," he says, not unkindly. "Yoosung, Heewon-ssi and Hyunsung-ssi won't know that we're here. You can go to the cafeteria and let them know, and we'll have a meeting here while Hyunsung-ssi treats Yoo Joonghyuk."

"Okay, hyung," says Lee Gilyoung. He darts a glance at Yoo Joonghyuk, swallowing audibly. Then he turns and leaves, and despite himself, Dokja relaxes when he's gone.

* * *

They're all together now but Shin Yoosung is dead, because why not? Why wouldn't the situation get even more fucked up? Dokja doesn't even want to think about it until Yoo Joonghyuk can talk consistently again. If he lets himself acknowledge it, he won't be able to function.

Everyone has been acting so frustratingly suspicious. They've all been wandering off alone, and no one has really stayed together except he, Yoo Joonghyuk and Lee Gilyoung. Dokja understands that they are stressed, but he can't understand their inability to simply follow a plan. Shin Yoosung, at least, had an excuse, being a child. But the rest of them?

Dokja feels exhaustion drag at his eyelids.

Lee Hyunsung is monitoring Yoo Joonghyuk's vitals, a grim look on his face. He'd claimed to have been in Electrical the whole time, thus having no clue about Shin Yoosung's death. However, Jung Heewon had walked out of Electrical alone after an argument between them, the subject of which they are both reluctant to divulge. It's probably to do with their relationship, but Dokja files it under suspicious activity anyway.

"I came out when I heard the emergency, but I went to look for Heewon-ssi first. I knew she'd be in the decontamination chamber."

Jung Heewon, leaning against the wall and hugging herself again, had claimed not to have seen Shin Yoosung either, since she'd went across the ship to O2 all by herself. A fact disputed by Jang Hayoung, who said Shin Yoosung had run out of Storage after Jung Heewon.

"Maybe you didn't see us in Storage, we were behind the boxes, but Yoosung was calling to you when she ran out," Jang Hayoung had said, her red-rimmed eyes glaring accusingly at Jung Heewon. "I thought for sure you heard her. That's why I just let her go and went to Admin to look at the suit tracker. I saw one in Electrical, one in Security, two in the Upper Engine room, one in the upper corridor, one who must have been Yoosung in Shields, and Jung Heewon in the corridor."

Dokja doesn't know how accurate Jang Hayoung's memory is, and decides to take that information with a large grain of salt. _Besides,_ he thinks, _the Admin map only tracks the terminal on the suit, not the people inside them._ His and Yoo Joonghyuk's terminals have been left in the Upper Engine room.

Kim Namwoon had been locked in Security, he said, and had spent that whole time aiming his phaser at the door and vent in turn, instead of watching the cameras. Dokja sighs inwardly. A good excuse, if true, for why he hadn't noticed their signalling from the upper corridor. Then the emergency had gone off, he'd tried to go through the upper corridor only to be blocked, and then he'd gone the long way around. He'd seen no one.

Now, they are all looking at Dokja for a decision, but Dokja doesn't want to make one. How can he, when all the evidence he has is their word?

"None of us should trust anyone, right now." Dokja looks at Yoo Joonghyuk, whose worrying unconsciousness has eased into something that looks like a healing sleep. He nods at Lee Hyunsung in thanks. "But I trust Red and Orange the least, out of all of you. Think about it yourselves."

He pauses, reaches into his tool belt, and takes out his plasma knife. "If we can't make a decision, I'll take myself out of the equation. No navigator, no space jumps." He can hear the knife hum when he holds it near his throat.

"Then we can all go down together."

* * *

Dokja sits on the floor next to Yoo Joonghyuk, the fingers of his left hand resting on Yoo Joonghyuk's neck to feel his pulse. He doesn't participate in the crew's discussion.

They're talking heatedly, accusing each other based on deductions that no one can prove or disprove because there isn't enough evidence. It makes Dokja's chest tight with anxiety. At least Yoo Joonghyuk is moving a little now, stirring back to consciousness. Dokja hadn't realised what a comfort it was to trust someone until now Yoo Joonghyuk is the only one he can trust.

The knife, too, is a comforting weight in his hand.

But it's not that Dokja wants to die. He does have some things to live for. It's just that his death is the most expedient solution to this situation; the ship will probably be able to operate if the crew finish their remaining tasks and fix it, but there's no way they'll be able to make wormhole jumps without him. There won't be any point to the Impostors killing people if they can't then use the ship to get to the human homeworld. Then they'll have to manually force their way through the asteroid belt to the wayplanet nearby, where the crew will split up and Yoo Joonghyuk will go for proper treatment and everyone will be happy. Perfect.

He should have thought of this sooner. Shin Yoosung would still be alive. Lee Jihye, Han Sooyoung, Lee Seolhwa… what did they all die for? His own foolish pride, thinking he could help the ship through a crisis. Of course he can't. Now that Yoo Joonghyuk is incapacitated, Dokja can only offer his own miserable life.

Yoo Joonghyuk's hand twitches. He opens his eyes. "Kim Dokja," he manages, his voice so weak that even Dokja can barely hear him. The others certainly don't. Dokja bends closer, so their foreheads almost touch.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," Dokja whispers. "Go back to sleep, don't be stubborn. You're even more useless right now, Hyunsung-ssi sedated you." When Yoo Joonghyuk doesn't reply, Dokja realises he's looking at the knife. He smiles wryly. "I have a plan, okay?"

"Stupid," Yoo Joonghyuk rasps.

"I know you are," Dokja replies, and puts his hand over Yoo Joonghyuk's mouth so he can't keep talking. He'd rather Yoo Joonghyuk have been asleep for this. But the universe has never allowed him anything he'd rather have. "Okay, children, time's up. Have you made a decision?"

They start to coax him, suggest more waiting, suggest going everywhere together in a group, no one splitting off alone. Even Kim Namwoon begrudgingly agrees. Dokja only smiles through it. He's already made his decision.

 _If only,_ he thinks, a little melancholy. _If only I could believe you._

"I'd like to be scattered in a river," he reminds Yoo Joonghyuk, though Yoo Joonghyuk surely knows. It's a little funny how much they know about each other, when today is the first time he's seen Yoo Joonghyuk's face.

Dokja takes one more look at Yoo Joonghyuk, whose eyes are shaking intensely in his struggle to move. Dokja, however, feels strangely calm. He takes his palm off Yoo Joonghyuk's mouth and presses it to his own lips.

The knife glows bright.

* * *

" _Hyung,_ " Gilyoung screams— the ink black void within him howls in tandem— he stretches out and the curling streams of miasma in his body sprint out to catch Kim Dokja's arm before the knife can cut his neck— (Kim Namwoon yells and takes out his phaser but Gilyoung cannot care, he has to— he has to—) but it's too late, he's too slow, too stupid, and the sight of bright red blood arcing across the room leaves him as breathless as if he's been stabbed himself.

Kim Dokja doesn't die immediately.

He meets Gilyoung's eyes, a chiding look in them as if he's annoyed about the tentacles interrupting him.

Lee Hyunsung has already rushed to Kim Dokja's side, ignoring Yoo Joonghyuk's inarticulate sounds of rage, trying his best to stem the blood flow. "Bandage," he barks at Jang Hayoung, who scrambles to obey. His aura is completely different from his usual steady warmth.

Gilyoung holds Kim Dokja's gaze. His eyes glitter with light like stars, like unknown constellations, like the universe Gilyoung has always wanted to explore.

And then, the light… goes out.

* * *

The first time Joonghyuk had said something to Kim Dokja that was unrelated to their professional lives, it had been to ask him what he was always looking at on his terminal.

"Books," Kim Dokja had said, a smile warming his voice. "Fiction. Do you ever read, Joonghyuk-ssi?"

Joonghyuk had not. He hadn't the time to read. When he hadn't been on assigned missions or private security work, he would spend time with Mia and do what she liked to do (it was often shopping). There had been precious little time for him planetside as it was, without spending more of it missing Mia growing up.

"That's too bad." The conversation had stopped, then, before Kim Dokja awkwardly asked: "Any other hobbies?"

On a whim, Joonghyuk had told Kim Dokja that he liked to cook. And Kim Dokja had remembered, obviously, because the next time they went out on a mission Kim Dokja had given him a cookbook. "It's a little old-fashioned," he had said, fiddling with his terminal. "It's based on recipes from the homeworld. You might like it."

Kim Dokja had remembered everything Joonghyuk ever said to him. It had been odd, because Joonghyuk had never been a fool. He'd known he was difficult to get along with. But somehow, though they had been annoyed at each other's habits, argued more than they ever spoke nicely, got into actual fistfights sometimes— somehow, on the coin of Kim Dokja's persistence and Joonghyuk's reluctant fondness, they had grown comfortable together.

"Take care of my sister," Joonghyuk would say, when leaving the planet without Kim Dokja.

"Keep an eye on my mother," Kim Dokja would tell him, when he did the same.

It doesn't really make sense to him, the scene that's playing out before him right now. There is blood on his face, on his chest— _Kim Dokja's blood—_ and the other people on the ship are acting like headless chickens, all out of their depth in the face of the monstrous thing they've let happen. Orange is on her knees, white-faced, holding on to Red's suit. Brown and Yellow try a pointless resuscitation exercise. Green's disgusting miasma still clings to Kim Dokja's bloodless skin, and Joonghyuk wants nothing more than to rip it away.

Joonghyuk should have just killed them all. Lee Seolhwa and Lee Jihye had been the first to be murdered, his friend and student respectively, and where did controlling his reaction get them? Joonghyuk's uncategorizable Kim Dokja is dead at his own hand, because Joonghyuk has grown soft. Grown trusting, like Kim Dokja was.

Joonghyuk closes his eyes. The pain in his stomach is coming back, slowly, the painkillers wearing off. But it is nothing compared to the breath-stealing agony in his chest.

If not for Mia, and Kim Dokja's mother, well.

Joonghyuk could die, too.

He lets the thought sit, hushed, in his mind.

* * *

It's quiet now that they've put Kim Dokja's body with the others.

Joonghyuk is sitting up against the wall, his stab wound stitched and wrapped, stomach queasy from taking antibiotics on a near-empty stomach. He hasn't left the Medbay. None of them have. The silence is like another guest in the room, its presence so oppressive that they haven't said a word after Brown took his hands off Kim Dokja's neatly sliced artery. Joonghyuk crunches another painkiller between his teeth. He's been eating the less effective pills as if they're candy, wanting to be in control of all his faculties rather than the loopiness that comes with the better stuff. Everyone's expression is grim.

Kim Dokja's body occupies the last bed in the bay: he's covered with a white sheet from his neck down, and the blood on his body has been carefully sponged off. Joonghyuk glances over only to feel a wave of dizziness hit, and immediately looks back at the floor.

He considers what he can actually do, instead. He is injured and not in fighting condition; he'd probably lose to Kim Dokja, let alone an alien. So there are five able-bodied crewmates remaining, an unknown number of whom are Impostors. And Green. Joonghyuk doesn't really know what to think about Green. Joonghyuk distrusts him almost on instinct, but the fact is that Green had been with them almost the entire time and had done nothing. It could have been because he hadn't been sure of his chances, but Joonghyuk had made sure to give him ample opportunity. And still, Green hadn't moved.

It's obvious that Purple had known more details about the boy's background, and that Kim Dokja most probably had a theory about Green's Impostor-like miasma. Joonghyuk himself, though, has no guesses. Green isn't making any trouble at the moment, only attempting to work the scanning equipment, so Joonghyuk dismisses him from the immediate threat list. He'll remain wary, nevertheless, and— and what? A muscle in his jaw jumps. He's useless at the moment. Like a sunfish.

Joonghyuk wonders, bitterly, what a sunfish even is.

Either way, if there is more than one alien remaining, they could in fact have joined forces by now to kill one of the remaining crewmates. Possibly Red or Brown, who are the most active threats in terms of physical ability (Orange is the type to capture, not kill, and Yellow is a civilian almost certainly in shock). But everyone remains unmoving— except Green, who has managed to get a blood sample in the centrifuge and is watching it spin intently.

Joonghyuk doesn't know who the sample is from. Maybe it's from Kim Dokja. Joonghyuk can't understand why Green would want to run a DNA extraction right now, but who is he to judge what a child does to cope. Joonghyuk himself is barely suppressing the urge to unsheathe his beam sword and go on a slaughter.

Abruptly, he clenches his fist. The sedative seems to have mostly worn off.

"So are we just gonna sit here?" Red's grating voice breaks the silence at last. He's jogging his leg, staring at Green. He'd been convinced by Orange earlier to rein it in, but has clearly lost his patience upon seeing Joonghyuk moving. "We have some trash to take out, right?"

"Crazy, you want us to throw someone off the ship again? There's only s-six of us left." Yellow is obviously frightened. All the deaths are probably catching up with her, now that she's seen the bodies laid out pale and lifeless on the sickbeds.

"Five," Red retorts, "five of us and one of _them._ Or four and two, or whatever— but come on, really? This fucker has to go. He's shown off his gross tentacles and everything, he's just standing there being suspicious, we should just—"

" _Shut up,"_ Green shouts, whipping around, the tentacles on his cheek steaming miasma into the air. "I'm one of them, okay? You were right, are you happy? I'm the last one left." He spits this last sentence out with impressively convincing resentment, and despite their shock, everyone relaxes minutely.

Except Joonghyuk, who of course knows very well that Green is _not_ the only Impostor left on the ship. From everyone's reactions, however, it seems that Kim Dokja hadn't bothered to explain precisely how Joonghyuk got injured. Joonghyuk isn't sure what Green is trying to accomplish. But he also doesn't care enough to say anything. The mission is already a failure, the dead are already dead. What does it matter even if the whole crew are all Impostors?

"Hey, _hey._ You tried to kill our Black-hyung, aren't you afraid of dying yourself?" Red says this with a wide grin that bares all his sharp teeth, suddenly looking more lively than he's been since Lee Jihye's death. "He'll heal up in a second— that body of his is barely human, you know? Then he'll cut you down and I'll make sure I get to _finish_ you. Right, hyung?"

Joonghyuk ignores him, because Red hardly needs encouragement when he's feeling bloodthirsty. And besides— "Is that Kim Dokja's?" He gestures with his chin at the tube of blood. Green shrinks back a little from Joonghyuk's glare.

"Yes," he whispers. Orange jerks out of her shocked daze.

"You took Dokja-ssi's blood?" she demands.

Green doesn't answer. Orange makes a disgusted noise, striding over and making to snatch it out of the chamber, but Green springs to alert, pressing himself back so she can't reach it, his alien limbs lashing at her aggressively.

He doesn't, Joonghyuk notices, actually hurt her.

"What do you want it for?" Yellow asks warily. She, like Orange, has her weapon out. Red seems to be so sure he's going to get to kill Green that he's just lounging against the wall, a smirk on his face. And Brown— Joonghyuk narrows his eyes. Brown isn't watching Orange, but Green. There's a look on his face like this is hurting him.

"It's…" Green swallows. "It's important."

"Why," Joonghyuk says, flatly.

"Because hyung is— I want to bring him back."

Joonghyuk goes very, very still.

"You want… to what?"

"I don't want hyung to die." Lee Gilyoung looks terrified, and the black lesion on his face throbs hideously. He doesn't even sound that confident about what he's saying— about the impossibility of bringing Kim Dokja back. But Joonghyuk has never been more focused in his life. Lee Gilyoung meets his gaze, eyes clear as Sirius in the sky of the homeworld, and says:

"I think I can save him."

Yoo Joonghyuk thinks, _he wanted to be scattered in the river, to flow into the ocean and become a part of the universe._

Yoo Joonghyuk thinks, _he wanted to write a new story, and I still haven't told him anything._

Yoo Joonghyuk thinks, _he wanted to kiss me—_

In their native country on the homeworld there is a natural river called the Hangang, one of few remaining on the planet. Kim Dokja had always liked the romantic notion of returning to his roots. _It's an important theme in novels,_ he would say, and then quickly talk about something else out of embarrassment. Joonghyuk closes his eyes. He thinks that Kim Dokja would have rather done all those things from his novels while he was alive.

Outside the ship a million stars shape themselves into constellations, into nebulae, into huge galactic rivers that themselves are only tiny droplets in the ocean of the universe. In the midst of all that, humanity's war with the Impostors is truly insignificant.

He opens his eyes. In the end, Joonghyuk is a selfish man.

He says: "Bring him back."

* * *

Gilyoung doesn't know if it's going to work. The procedure had been experimental when he was in the labs, as yet unsuccessful with all the spliced-gene Impostors, but— but Gilyoung is special, now. He's assimilated, he's _changed,_ so maybe he can—

"Gilyoung."

He can feel his broodmate's burning apprehension, the _fear_ in the back of his mind. It's still better than the grief he'd felt earlier. Anything to distract them both from this utter failure, and the strange emptiness where one other should be. He hopes Yoo Sangah is happier now that she's returned to the universe.

" _Lee Gilyoung._ Please."

Unwillingly, he turns his head. They are all looking at him, and he hates it. Kim Namwoon wants to kill him, Jang Hayoung wants to focus on repairing the ship, Jung Heewon wants to interrogate him, Lee Hyunsung wants to lock him up… the only one who doesn't want anything from him is Yoo Joonghyuk. Maybe Yoo Joonghyuk wants the most of him by another measure, but what he wants is the same as Gilyoung's goal, so it doesn't count.

"I need to concentrate," he mutters. "Can you save it for later?"

His hands are still moving with the miasma leaking from his face, weaving some inhuman pattern into the limp white fibers that make up Kim Dokja's DNA. He doesn't really know what they're doing; he'd never known, in the labs, but now that he has some vague familiarity with this ritual-like process, it seems even less understandable. The black mass coming from his body interlaces with the strands of DNA, floats inexplicably in the air and gleams in strange, alien ways.

 _It's like magic,_ Gilyoung thinks. He remembers those stories from the mission that he and Yoosung were rescued on. Kim Dokja had told them for hours, spinning tales of great wars and monkey gods, and everything had been so new. Gilyoung likes the idea that Kim Dokja will be brought back with magic.

"It's just— what are you _doing?_ " Jung Heewon shifts her grip on her sword, and it thrums ominously. "How is this going to get him back? He's already gone—"

"He's not." Gilyoung won't allow it. He'd have done this even if the others hadn't conceded to Yoo Joonghyuk's barely-concealed desperation.

"Say you can do it." That skeptical drawl is of course Kim Namwoon. "Why can't we bring back anyone else? Like Jihye?"

"Or Seolhwa-ssi," adds Jang Hayoung. It would probably be a more intelligent choice to bring back their doctor, if Gilyoung cared about that sort of thing.

"Too late," he says, succinctly. It's not, of course. The real reason is that he's using up his own life essence, and the only one he'll do that for is Kim Dokja. A man who was scared of Gilyoung, at the end. _And rightfully so,_ Gilyoung thinks, viciously. He won't blame Kim Dokja for being human. It's not his fault that Gilyoung isn't one any longer. _Hyung is still hyung._

Gilyoung glances at Kim Dokja's body. There is still that ethereal starlight of his soul radiating in an aura around his head and shoulders, but it's fading with each second. Gilyoung's hands speed up.

They speed up, as fast as he can, but he looks again at Kim Dokja and with a shock of despair he knows he's almost out of time, and he doesn't have enough in him.

In his heart, he cries out fruitlessly. They could have saved this mission. They could have killed everyone, staged an invasion, framed someone else as an Impostor. The humans still can't tell just from the bodies, after all. Gilyoung could still have saved this body for the sake of their own kind. But because it _is_ this body, because it's Lee Gilyoung and not anyone else, his foolish attachment to his human memories has gotten in the way. And now it will again.

Gilyoung's own soul sings regret and guilt through the bond, and his broodmate presses comforting forgiveness back.

"Hyunsung-hyung," he whispers, wretchedly, "please help me."

There is a silence so perfect Gilyoung can almost hear the melody of his lifeblood entwining with the DNA. It is broken, in an instant, by the clatter of Jung Heewon's sword on the floor.

"Hyunsung-ssi," she says, blankly. The dawning horror of realisation is stark in her expression. As it is on them all except Yoo Joonghyuk, as Gilyoung had already expected.

Lee Hyunsung, his gentle face pulled taut with sadness, does not answer. He lifts his hand and unmistakeable void-black tentacles worm out of his wrist. They look stronger than Gilyoung expected, not as weak as Yoo Sangah had been even after he's attacked Yoo Joonghyuk and killed Shin Yoosung. But then Lee Hyunsung had been a little less resistant to violence than Yoo Sangah. Gilyoung reaches out and they come to curl up in his palm, and Lee Hyunsung severs them near the root; immediately, he grows pale and sweat springs to his forehead. Gilyoung can feel his pain through the bond, though he's trying to hide it.

"Thank you, hyung." Gilyoung draws his fingers through Lee Hyunsung's gift, and it wreathes around the braid of Gilyoung and Kim Dokja, tightens it and makes it stronger, strong enough that what was once loose fiber becomes a strong cord pulsing with life. Gilyoung sags in relief.

Kim Namwoon darts out to stop him as he takes it to Kim Dokja's body, but Yoo Joonghyuk _growls_ and Lee Hyunsung just trips the guy and binds him to the floor. Gilyoung knows Lee Hyunsung has exhausted almost all of his strength, and— he looks at Kim Dokja's dimming soul— he has to hurry up before they're both killed. He has no illusions about what Yoo Joonghyuk will do as soon as he's recovered. Gilyoung hasn't killed anyone, but his broodmates have, and the humans will never forgive it. Even though Gilyoung has already betrayed them so deeply, he can't bear to live on without their bond.

"Please work," Gilyoung breathes.

He slices Kim Dokja's chest open, enduring the brilliant agony of a phaser shot to his shoulder from one of the humans behind him, and binds the cord to Kim Dokja's heart.


	2. epilogue

_**three years later** _

"How are you, Yoo Joonghyuk?"

Joonghyuk doesn't look at the voice behind him, focusing on the fence gate he's trying to fix. It's been sagging almost to the ground lately, and it's getting more and more difficult to open. Out here on the border of the wild dunes he'd prefer to be able to open his gate quickly. He twists a stiff wire around the axle of the wheel he'd salvaged from the wastes, securing the top of it to the gate rail. It looks like it's a wheel off a piece of MIRA equipment, judging from the lack of rust and the particular gleam of that silver alloy. Now it's just a fence wheel.

"Is Mia enjoying school?"

"She is," Joonghyuk answers, reluctantly. He checks that the wheel is stable then gets to his feet, swings the gate back and forth. It moves much more smoothly now. "But you already know. You see her more than I do, these days."

Mia doesn't look for him as much as she used to. She's in a rebellious phase, and everything Joonghyuk does seems to be wrong. She'd even had some choice things to say about his current living conditions, the last time she'd visited. Where he's living doesn't matter to him that much— he just needs a base to rest away from civilization when he's back from missions, and he's never been too bothered about comfort. But he's trying to be a little better, for her. He doesn't want her to draw even further away.

"I'm sorry about that." The voice sounds regretful. Joonghyuk blows out an irritated breath, relatches the gate, and finally turns around.

"Why are you sorry? Mia can do what she likes," he says, mouth pulling into a small frown. It's no surprise; Mia is at the age she'd want to talk to a woman instead of her older brother. "I'm fine."

Lee Sookyung looks at him, a familiar expression of contrition on her face. She looks so much like him that Joonghyuk still feels a yearning surge, deep in his chest, even after all this time has passed.

"Are you?" she asks, quietly. "I know how it feels for a child to leave."

"Don't talk about—" Joonghyuk has almost drawn a weapon before he gets ahold of himself. He mutters an insincere apology, which Lee Sookyung only brushes off. She doesn't really like him, Joonghyuk knows, even if she's kind. It rankles. He's never wanted anyone to like him before, but the one time he does… He folds his arms, looking past Lee Sookyung at the faint shadow of the capital city in the distance. It looms like a monster, like all the things Joonghyuk wishes he could forget.

The silence stretches on. She's waiting for him to give in. Joonghyuk knows this, too, but he surrenders anyway.

"How," he swallows, painfully, around the three year old ache in his throat, "how is he?" Joonghyuk isn't good at pretending not to care. But Lee Sookyung is kind enough to pretend she doesn't see it. Instead, she moves to his side and gazes back at the city with him. In the past, it had been her monster as well. 

"He's doing well," she tells him, and it sounds like an apology.

"Good," he says. It sounds like he's broken, a wave in the uncaring sea, shattered upon the rocks of a shore he thought he'd known. He looks down, examines the scraggly weeds at their feet so she won't see his face. "Is he happy?"

Why, Joonghyuk wonders, as Lee Sookyung sighs, does he ask the same question every time? Is he waiting for a different answer? Even if that fool was somehow unhappy, what would that have to do with Yoo Joonghyuk? That path collapsed for him, that day on the ship. He turns to unlatch his gate again. His fingers are shaking.

"He is," she says, so softly, but it tears at him all the same.

"Good," he repeats, and retreats to his lonely house to lick his wounds. Lee Sookyung only stands where she is, watching his back.

"He's leaving," she whispers, after a time, but no one remains to hear it.

* * *

"Kim Dokja," says the Director, tapping her nails on the desk. She's looking at him appraisingly. This isn't the first time they've met, but it's the first time Dokja is ready to give her an answer. "I take it you've decided?"

"Yes, Director Croft," he replies. "I've made my arrangements. My mother will be coming with me."

"Hmm." She glances at something on her terminal, and her eyebrows rise. "Are you not asking for your old partner? You haven't run missions together in a while, but your success rate was as good as it is now. That was even before the augmentations."

Dokja bites the inside of his cheek. He'd expected this question. 

"I'm different. After I—" he hesitates, but the Director already knows the real story. "After they brought me back."

"Oh? Different how?"

"It's personal." Dokja smiles, wryly. "It doesn't affect my capabilities at all, but our working relationship… He couldn't accept the shift."

The Director gives him a sharp look. He doesn't cower. There are, of course, things he's leaving out, but it's true that they're personal and will have no effect on his work, so he doesn't see a need to divulge any of it. He still feels some sense of obligation toward Yoo Joonghyuk, for all the years they worked together, and for all— for all the emotions Dokja must once have had. He won't air their dirty laundry, even if it is the Director of MIRA asking.

"Alright," says the Director, when he continues to say nothing. "Welcome aboard, Kim Dokja. I'm looking forward to your first mission."

A jump through one of the first wormholes ever discovered, one that no one had ever come back out of. This time, MIRA is fairly certain of their success, especially because Dokja has agreed to be the Chief Navigator. His perfectly changed Impostor body, combined with the new hybrid ships, gives them an assurance they've never had before.

"We might not be coming back for a long time, Mr. Kim." The Director leans back in her chair, twirling her old-fashioned fountain pen in her hand. "No regrets?"

Dokja thinks about it, for a long moment. He's tied off all his loose ends, settled all his scores. True, there is Yoo Joonghyuk, still. But the man had always been resilient. For all Dokja knows he might not even be thinking about Dokja any more. _He probably isn't,_ Dokja realises, smiling a little bit at his own inflated ego. Perhaps if he had stayed, all those years ago, something might have happened. Now, though, even if he calls Yoo Joonghyuk— with the pride on that man, he doubts Yoo Joonghyuk will come.

"None," Dokja says, at last.

* * *

In the darkness of the universe, in that strange space between the stars, perhaps there are endless worlds where things might have gone a little differently. Perhaps there is a woman who learned all there was to know about a thousand different cultures. Perhaps a man and a woman who trust each other, no wall of species to divide them, perhaps a young boy who never had to make an impossible choice.

Perhaps, somewhere in the everything, like a lighthouse in a cold, immense ocean: perhaps there is a love that never dies, a heart that can never be bound.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's a wrap. thank you for reading. 
> 
> i'll post backstory extras as a separate fic soon (lots of you have asked about LGY, and the history between KDJ and YJH), along with maybe some deleted scenes. 
> 
> for now, farewell!

**Author's Note:**

> DEATH SPOILERS:
> 
> \- Lee Jihye  
> \- Yoo Sangah  
> \- Lee Seolhwa  
> \- Han Sooyoung  
> \- Shin Yoosung  
> \- Kim Dokja


End file.
